Pay cuts ‘are now a reality’ - union boss

A union chief and Lancashire Police worker has claimed pay cuts, austerity and privatisation are now a daily reality for hundreds of thousands of public sector workers.

Maureen Le Marinel, president of Unison, told the union’s national conference in Brighton that the Government was inflicting “misery” on all sections of the public sector.

Ms Le Marinel said: “My service group has lost thousands of jobs, we have faced the crass attempts at police privatisation, and plans to privatise the probation service is right up there with the very worst of this Government’s crazy ideas.

“(The Government) continue to steer their economy bus down the one-way street marked austerity, whistling, cheering and laughing as they go, with no option of changing course and absolutely no sign of applying the brakes.”

She added Government policies held out no hope for workers, who need something to “ease the pain” of the spiralling cost of living, adding: “We’ve not even seen the worst of it.

“The Tories are dancing with glee at the prospect of dragging out austerity for as long as they possibly can, tying the country into a circle of decline until at least 2020.”

Ms Le Marinel added many council and health workers had seen their pay devalued by a fifth since the coalition came to power.